Posted on 09/22/2012 1:45:15 PM PDT by KantianBurke
STAFFORD, Va. — Just outside the gates of the storied Quantico Marine Base, George Allen, the Republican nominee for a Senate seat from Virginia, sat down in the offices of a moving van company with more than a dozen defense contractors from his state last Monday to listen to them fret over government spending cuts.
Scott Hirons’s small software firm will probably have to shrink to five employees from 15 by the end of October if nothing is done to head off automatic, across-the-board defense cuts, he said. The cuts will not begin until January, if ever, but the threat alone has already frozen the contracting world, Mr. Hirons said. John Radziszewski worried not just about spending cuts but also about the Pentagon’s recent moves to “in-source” work to government research labs to save money.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
However, anyone who wants to gut our defense will be loved by Ron Paul robots.
Three guesses on which he is more concerned with - national security or Virginia jobs.
For the person in the street, there's really very little support for defense spending, and polling indicates this is true of both self-identified Republicans and Democrats - the only thing preventing huge cuts are local pork issues, really. And the average person is completely unconcerned about the Chinese, Russian militaries, etc.
Regardless of whether that's the correct view, that's the simple reality out there right now.
An Army wholefully undersized to fight more than a theater war; a Navy at its smallest since before Pearl Harbor, the Marines in danger of being eliminated altogether and an Air Force more interested in fighting Christianity than America’s real enemies - and you wonder why people are worried?
We have moved from a pre- 9/11 mentality to a pre-12/7 mentality.
As you chart shows the real battle has already begun, i.e., Guns versus butter. Throughout history, this is a common thread as great powers in decline must make these decisions. Butter usually wins because it has the most constituents. Europe is a prime example of what happens. Most European countries plus Canada spend 1% or less of their GDP on defense.
As the welfare state demands more and more resources to keep it afloat, taxes are increased and defense reduced to make up the short falls along with increased borrowing. The US is well along that path as the welfare state collapse. Our population of those over 65 will double in the next 20 years and by 2030, one out of every 5 residents of this country will be 65 or older. And by 2030, there will just be two workers for every retiree compared to 3.3 today and 16 in 1980.
George Allen, the Republican nominee for a Senate seat from Virginia, sat down in the offices of a moving van company with more than a dozen defense contractors from his state last Monday to listen to them fret over government spending cuts.
Obamacare has gotta go.
He seems to be conflating the idea of Virginia jobs with northern Virginia jobs .... wonder what people in southern Virginia think about his catering to DoD contractors in Tyson's Corner and Chantilly?
Thanks for posting. Saved to media, for circulation by e-mail.
Army medics know that a safe and well armed battle zone is necessary to conduct medical help.
One cannot have health care without defense.
Only suicidal idiots plan their defense on past conflicts. Laugh your ass off all you want, but the fact is that our nation is in decline which is led by our waning military. Tell that to your grandma.
Only electoral idiots fantasize about increasing the Defense budget at the cost of entitlements. Unless of course you’re willing to increase taxes to pick up the tab for any of it.
I am NOT a Ron Paul robot, but it’s patently obvious that pursuing the “the budget should get a huge increase while entitlements should get a severe cut instead” line play RIGHT into the hands of the Democrats:
“See, they are warmongers who want to kill granny!”
Truth be told, we CAN and should cut defense spending. We went from 100,000 to 0 troops in Iraq and Afghan commitments are winding down. Obama is determined to lose both wars (Iran is now the powerbroker in Iraq, and taliban are active in Afghanistan and will stay longer than we do).
So what’s the point of $700b if we cant win wars anyway?
Yep. Fat cat northern virginia crony government contractors getting fat off the government teet. I say this as someone who worked for a govt. contractor for 9 years. The games they play to extract money out of the taxpayers pocket to feather their own nests are sickening.
Of course we need national defense, but the amount of pork in the defense industry is MASSIVE. Particularly with government services staff augmentation contracts.
Bring on sequestration. Sometimes you just have to rip off the bandaid.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.